Category Archives: Creativity

Big milestone: I turned in my latest manuscript yesterday, the last substantive edits.

on February 23, 2024 in Creativity

Several readers read the last round and reviewed it very highly. I keep tightening it and clarifying parts, which improves it, but the big challenge in settling down to publish is that I’m learning more and faster than ever. This round got some great new stuff. I’m beyond enthusiastic about it reaching shelves and your hands. I won’t lie: I also feel anxiety and fear. The reviews that matter to[…] Keep reading →

See the Daily Show’s segment on me: “Is it Possible to Live “Off the Grid” in Manhattan?”

on November 29, 2023 in Creativity, Habits, Leadership, Nature

Here’s just the segment with me: and the whole episode (I appear about 11:10). I liked it more than the New Yorker piece on me, though that’s not saying much. I laughed out loud several times, partly since I remember the recording. For example, after she put the Skittles in the kombucha, we saw their dye run off and they turned an unnatural ghostly white. I wanted to share about[…] Keep reading →

What do you think of this person’s flying habits? (part 1)

on November 8, 2023 in Addiction, Creativity, Habits

I’ve been copying the travel comments from the newsletters from a friend into a file. I edited out people’s names and put in bold the names of places, but otherwise it’s as he wrote it. What do you think about this lifestyle? I think I once would have aspired to live this way. Even if I didn’t want to fly this much when I flew, I think I would have[…] Keep reading →

Sustainability is skills you practice a lifetime, not a checklist of “ten little things” like journalists promote.

on May 1, 2023 in Art, Blog, Creativity, Nature

When I teach my core sustainability leadership practice, the Spodek Method, in classes and corporate workshops, I have participants pair up and practice it with each other. When there is an odd number of participants, one usually pairs with me, leading me to new commitments on my environmental values. At first I worried I’d run out of commitments after reading many ten-little-things-you-can-do-for-the-environment articles that promote the same things. Those CCCSC[…] Keep reading →

Challenges with solar power in New York in the Winter

on December 1, 2022 in Creativity

A few weeks from the winter solstice, new challenges arise in using solar compared to summer and fall, some augmented by starting an experiment with what I had, not analyzing and planning to find perfection before starting (starting is the way to find what works best). Days are shorter: I have less time during the day to charge. Days are shorter, part 2: I can’t choose when I charge. Near[…] Keep reading →

It’s amazing how much people argue they have to pollute, especially environmentalists and do-gooders.

on June 20, 2022 in Addiction, Creativity, Nature

I volunteer a lot, so end up talking to organizers of volunteer organizations. Over the weekend I talked to two organizers of food volunteer organizations. One provides meals through a soup kitchen, the other collects food stores would throw away and delivers it to community centers. Both repackage food delivered to them in disposable, single-use plastic containers. I know people were able to deliver food safely before plastic was invented,[…] Keep reading →

Finished book number three proposal

on March 15, 2022 in Art, Creativity

About a year ago I started writing the first draft of my next book. If you count earlier iterations that only led to refining the outline and restarting, I probably started six months earlier, not that I kept track. I had finished my first draft a few months later, spring 2021. I knew when I started writing my second non-self-published book, Initiative, that I would write my next book on[…] Keep reading →

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